A Conversation With The Mentor Who Changed My Life | Gary DeBlasio

Michael Gervais (0:01)

This will be like no other interview that I've ever had. There's not many people that know me the way you know me. Let's talk about mentorship.

Gary DeBlasio (0:09)

You have to help a person from the inside out.

Michael Gervais (0:11)

What is your understanding of men and emotions?

Gary DeBlasio (0:13)

Most men are afraid of their emotions.

Michael Gervais (0:15)

How do you not judge and critique when you clearly saw that I was a mess?

Gary DeBlasio (0:19)

That's not my job. My job is to hold a mirror up and say, is this who you want to be? You have something to teach me, I have something to teach you, and we both have to pay attention here.

Michael Gervais (0:29)

Oh, you're feeling it, aren't you?

Gary DeBlasio (0:30)

Yeah.

Michael Gervais (0:41)

Welcome back, or welcome to the Finding Mastery Podcast. I am your host, Dr. Michael Gervais, by trade and training a high-performance psychologist. Today, we have a very special conversation.

As we chart our path through life, there are those rare anchors that help to hold us steady and also point us to new horizons. In this special conversation, I have the privilege of introducing you to my mentor and someone who has been a guiding force in the lives of countless individuals across the spectrum of industries for over 40 years.

Gary DeBlasio has this incredible knack for unlocking potential in people. It's incredible how he does it. And he's been doing it with leaders in aerospace and healthcare, elite sports, and in academia for a very long time. His insights and wisdom is earned, earnestly earned. And I've had this upfront seat on how he works. The depth of his alone work, the internal work that he's done for himself is one of the greatest investments that he's provided to his larger community. To me, to my family, to all of us here. He is a bellwether for me. His approach to mentorship, being both a teacher and a student, listening deeply to one's inner voice and fostering a connection with something greater than oneself. That has profoundly shaped my own path. So today, we dive deep into the heart of our relationship, exploring the transformative power of being seen and nurtured.

Gary opens up about his philosophy on life, transitions, the challenges of the next generation, and the critical role of recovery and creating safe spaces for oneself and for others.

This conversation has so much emotion in it for me. For both Gary and myself, we are full of emotions during this. I love you, Gary. Thank you for what you've done for me. Thank you what you've done for all of us here in the Finding Mastery community. And with that, let's dive right into this incredible conversation with my mentor, Gary DeBlasio. Gary, we've known each other for a long time. And there's not many people that know me the way you know me. And I would venture to say maybe nobody. So this is a real treat for me to be able to have a conversation with you about you, because you've spent in a very thoughtful, discerning way, 40 years of knowing me.

And so I'm a little nervous.

Gary DeBlasio (3:36)

Me too.

Michael Gervais (3:37)

Yeah. And only because of how much I care about you.

And also that you know all of me.

Gary DeBlasio (3:46)

No secrets.

Michael Gervais (3:47)

I don't know where this is going to go.

Gary DeBlasio (3:48)

I have no idea.

Michael Gervais (3:50)

So all that being said is maybe we can just start with how we met. And before we kind of dive into it, this will be like no other interview that I've ever had.

So maybe we can just start there. Like, do you remember where we met?

Gary DeBlasio (4:06)

Yeah. We met on a ski trip.

We chaperoned a cabin.

Michael Gervais (4:12)

We? No, you chaperoned a cabin.

Gary DeBlasio (4:14)

You were my assistant.

Michael Gervais (4:16)

Wait, I was your assistant?

Gary DeBlasio (4:17)

Yes. Yes. That's how it was set up.

Michael Gervais (4:20)

I was 15 years old though.

Gary DeBlasio (4:21)

No, I think you were 17, soon to be 18 Yeah.

And yeah, it was Martin Luther King weekend. We went up to Big Bear. And we had a cabin.

Michael Gervais (4:35)

I did not put that together. All of my time, I felt like, well, I was a kid.

But I felt like you were an elder and I was a kid. And I didn't think I was part of a staff.

Gary DeBlasio (4:46)

Yeah, you were part.

Yeah, because I had a lot of guys. It was an old guy cabin. We had a lot. And so you were there to help out with the cabin.